Successful and unsuccessful attempts to publish biographic encyclopedias in the Dutch language in the Netherlands in the 18th century

Description

In this paper I will analyze the encyclopedia which was announced in 1786 by the Dutch publisher Pieter Blussé, a 24 volume series with the title Complete description of all the arts, trades, crafts, factories, markets and their workplaces, tools etc. Taken in part from the most renowned foreign works: with a supplement on the theory and practice of the finest domestic artists and artisans. Blussé kept the promise expressed in his prospectus, but it took him 32 years to finish the project. It was one of his most expensive undertakings and it is still unique in the annals of Dutch publishing. The production of this work is also of interest from an international perspective. Examples were already in existence, the famous Encyclopedie of Diderot published in 28 volumes between 1751 and 1772. However, a much more important source of inspiration - and as it turned out also of information- was another encyclopedic book series published in French, titled Descriptions des arts et metiers by De Reaumur and Du Monceau, published around the same time as Diderot’s Encyclopedie. The Reaumur-Monceau series consisted of more than 100 volumes about the technical aspects of a broad scala of trades and industries. In this paper I will sketch a profile of the buyers of Blusse’s encyclopedia based on a list of subscribers. I will also look at the production of the volumes, the recruiting authors and illustrators, the decision which trades were chosen with the Dutch economy as a determining factor, the function of dedications added to separate volumes. Finally, we will look at what Pieter Blussé wrote about this project in his autobiography, where he listed this encyclopedia among the five most important of the 1400 books he and his father had published.

Period	29 Jul 2015
Event title	the 14th International Congress for Eighteenth-Century Studies. Panel: Economic Knowledge in Encyclopedic Compilations of the 18th Century
Event type	Other
Location	Erasmus University RotterdamShow on map